Fox Cancels Alcatraz and The Finder, Renews Touch

The renewals and cancellations continue to roll in as the major networks prepare to announce their 2012-2013 schedules: Fox has renewed Touch for Season 2 and canceled Alcatraz and The Finder, according to Deadline and TVLine, respectively.

Alcatraz, from the venerable J.J. Abrams, enjoyed a strong debut back in January, but the show's ratings fell sharply over the course of its first season. Plus, as Tim noted when he named the drama one of the season's 10 biggest bubble shows, it was up against Fringe and Touch for "a limited number of 'weirdo drama' slots on Fox's schedule." The network renewed Fringe for a shortened fifth season at the end of April.

The Finder's axing comes as no surprise. The Bones spin-off struggled to find an audience, and moved from Thursdays to Fridays in April to accommodate Touch... which for its part had originally been scheduled for Mondays, but earned a free trip to Thursdays after a special January preview episode put up impressive numbers. Got all that?

Touch, the Kiefer Sutherland-starring "we're all connected" drama from Heroes creator Tim Kring, has recently seen an uptick in the ratings after an initial decline.